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| Highlights |
Elizabeth
Bollwerk
Research Training Program, 2003
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Picking Out the Pueblos: A Documentation Investigation PROJECT DESCRIPTION • The Repatriation Office of the Smithsonian Institution was established in 1991 in response to the 1989 National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI Act). • The NMAI Act requires that the Smithsonian inventory, document, and if requested, repatriate (or return) culturally affiliated human remains and funerary objects to Native American Tribes. • Although the Smithsonian has met this requirement, in-depth investigations of collections without specific cultural affiliation will sometimes yield new information about object history and the culture of origin. • The General Pueblo collection, which contains 287 objects known to have been collected from an area of approximately 28 Native American villages located in Southwestern United States (see map), is one such example. • Because all of these Pueblos (or villages) have very distinctive cultures and beliefs, an attempt to find information demonstrating from which specific villages objects were collected is important for the consultation process between the Museum and Native American Tribes.
Because most of the objects in the General Pueblo Collection were donated to the museum in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was impossible to contact any of the actual donors for information. The only option was to look at the records associated with these objects on the chance there was information available that had been overlooked. In order to determine which Pueblo the objects in the General Pueblo Collection were from, it was necessary to perform some archival detective work. This entailed: • Going to the Museum Support Center, where all the collections are stored, and examining each object and noting what was written on the object itself and any tags associated with it • Checking this information against the original ledger books • Completing another check against the original card catalogue • Examining accession files, field notes, and published accounts to find any information on donors or provenience of objects • When all
of this was complete, entering the new information into a database which
will be available for for future investigations
After the four types of records were examined, new information obtained about each object was compared to see whether multiple lines of evidence agreed about an object’s origins, and if it agreed, was it enough evidence to identify the object as being from a specific Pueblo? These efforts revealed three main conclusions: 1) Dating back to the time of their collection, some objects had absolutely no information associated with them. 2) Others had a few pieces of information but not enough to make a definite recommendation as to their affiliation. Further tribal input and other expert research might provide more information. 3) Many objects
had multiple lines of evidence that contained enough information to
make a strong recommendation as to the village or Pueblo of origin.
A number of actions will hopefully result from this investigation: • The objects whose records contained enough evidence to clearly identify the Pueblo of origin will be updated in the Anthropological database, pending curatorial review. • Those objects which did not have enough information will be noted and eventually studied by specialists to determine whether it will ever be possible to identify their place or culture of origin. • The objects
that had no possibility for further identification from the documentation
records will be noted. A report will also
be produced for the Repatriation Office so that the results of this
project will be available in the future for consultation with Native
American tribes.
This project was
completed as part of the Notre Dame NMNH Internship program in Anthropology.
This research was supported by a grant from the University of Notre
Dame. I would like to thank the University of Notre Dame, the RTP, the
Office of Repatriation (especially my advisor Dr. Risa Arbolino and
Museum specialists Beth Eubanks and Betsy Bruemmer), the collections’
support staff at the MSC, the NMNH Anthropology Library, the NAA, and
the Office of the Registrar NMNH. Want to ask a question? Visit the Message Board Virtual
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